


The More Things Change

by kisahawklin



Series: Supernatural Season 12 Tagathon [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Community: episodic_supernatural, Emotional Constipation, Episode: s12e03 The Foundry, Family, Gen, Hurt Dean Winchester, Loss, Protective Sam Winchester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-29
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-08-27 15:53:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8407642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisahawklin/pseuds/kisahawklin
Summary: Sam keeps an eye on Dean.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Ohhhhhhhhhhhh Dean broke my heart this episode. That poor, lost little boy. *hugs him*

~~~

Sam waits, just for a little while.

He's processing his own feelings, anyway, it's not like he has the emotional room to deal with Dean's shit, even if Dean would let him.

Dean would never let him.

Sam just sinks into his thoughts for a while, tries to logic the thing to death, make his heart understand what his head knows only too well. It doesn't work. He can't make it feel like anything other than his mother left him. And he knows Dean feels the same, and that it's probably a thousand times worse for Dean because he already lost her once. And this time, she _chose_ to leave him. 

So he understands a fair bit of what's going on with Dean. He understands (and could've predicted, honestly) Dean's reactions to her leaving. 

And he knows what Dean's going to do next.

He calls Cas.

~~~

By the time Sam walks in the door of the roadhouse, Dean's brawling. He's about ten minutes too late. Unfortunately Dean's so drunk he's mostly getting the shit kicked out of him, and falling over to boot. He must've been drinking hard and fast to get this wasted. Sam's heart aches for his brother. He feels sorry for himself, but he just knows that this is the kind of betrayal that will set Dean's relationship with Mary back for a decade. He's seen it firsthand.

He puts himself between the muscle-bound guy and Dean, getting his hands up. "Hey, he's had enough."

Dean's spitting blood and mumbling something about kicking the guy's ass. "Not tonight, champ," Sam throws over his shoulder, and catches the guy throwing a punch out of the corner of his eye, and ducks.

The guy nearly falls into Sam, he'd put so much behind the punch and really expected it to land. Sam gets his shoulder under the dude and shoves him backwards, into one of the high top tables. 

"Leave it alone," Sam says, turning to Dean and trying to get him upright. He's looking terrible, and Sam can't really judge how much is pain and how much is drunk. He hopes Cas is close.

The guy steps forward like he wants to challenge Sam, but Sam's had enough, and he has to take care of Dean. "You don't want to do that," Sam says mildly. He meets the guy's eyes and stands his ground. A couple of his more sober friends seem to understand they should leave well enough alone and pull him away. 

Sam keeps an eye on them even so, keeping them in his peripheral vision while wrangling Dean out to the Impala and getting him settled in the backseat for the short trip home. 

~~~

Sam's scared. If Dean is sloppy drunk, he might have alcohol poisoning. There's no way he could've gotten this drunk without drinking hard liquor like water. _Hurry up, Cas,_ he prays.

"She was supposed to be what I needed," Dean says.

He doesn't tell Dean that maybe Amara didn’t have any clue what Dean needed.

"She's a person, Dean. Would you really have wanted someone who fawned over us with no mind of her own?"

He regrets the question as soon as it's out of his mouth; drunk as he is, Dean might say yes.

"No."

 _Whew_.

"But I thought…"

Sam knows. He can't possibly put words to the seething mass of emotions Dean's feeling, but he understands them. Even the ones he doesn't have for himself, he has for Dean. He can't help wanting to protect Dean the way Dean's protected him all these years.

"I know."

~~~

Dean's asleep by the time Cas shows up. Sam gives Cas the Cliff's Notes and Cas heals Dean. Dean immediately falls into a deep sleep, his body settling heavily on the bed.

"Is he all right?" Cas asks.

Sam shakes his head. "Definitely not. But he doesn't really know how to deal with anything anymore, so he's getting things out the only way he can."

"Drinking and fighting?"

Sam nods. "And hunting, once he sobers up."

"That doesn't seem very healthy."

Sam laughs. What's healthy in their lives anymore? They've officially become the people no one can relate to. There are no psychologists that can help them, no sympathetic ears that can offer sound advice or just understanding. All they've got is each other, and Cas, he supposes, though Cas has been distracted lately.

"Well, bottling it up is usually worse."

"I suppose." Cas looks doubtful, but Sam knows he usually trusts them on this sort of thing.

They stand in silence for a while, watching Dean sleep. Sam wants nothing more than to crawl into bed with his brother, snuggle up like they used to when he felt sick and Dean was trying to make him feel better. 

He knows he'd get punched, though. 

Finally, he sighs and turns away, putting a hand on Cas's shoulder to get him to come along. "Tell me what happened with Lucifer."

~~~


End file.
